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William   Bacon   Stevens 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


mi- 


SERMON, 


PREACHED    IN 


ST.  LUKE'S  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA, 
October    ii,    1865, 

BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  CONVENTION 

OF    THE 

PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 

ON    THE    OCCASION     OF    THE 

CONSECRATION 

OF 

The  Reverend  CHARLES  TODD  QUINTARD,  M.D., 

AS  BISHOP  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  TENNESSEE, 

BY 
The   Right  Reverend  WM.  BACON  STEVENS,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    THE    DIOCESE    OF    PENNSYLVANIA. 


PUBI.ISHKI)   BY    REQUEST   OF    THE    HOUSE    OF   CLERICAL  AND    LAY    DKLKnAIKS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

CHAS.  T.  ADAMS,  CHURCH  BOOK  STORE 

NO.    1314  CHESTNUT  STREET. 
1865. 


SERMON, 


PREACHED    IN 


ST.  LUKE'S  CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA, 
October    i  i,    1865, 

BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  CONVENTION 

OF    THE 

PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 

ON    THE    OCCASION     OF    THE 

CONSECRATION 

OF 

The  Reverend  CHARLES  TODD  OUINTARD,  M.D., 

AS  BISHOP  OF  THE  DIOCESE  OF  TENNESSEE, 

BY 
The  Right  Reverend  WM.  BACON  STEVENS,  D.D., 

BISHOP    OF    THE    DIOCESE    OF    PENNSYLVANIA. 


PUBLISHED  BY   REQUEST   OF  THE    HOUSE    OF   CLERICAL  AND   LAY   DELEGATES. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

CHAS.  T.  ADAMS,  CHURCH  BOOK  STORE, 

NO.   IJH  CHESTNUT  STREET. 
1865. 


SERMON. 


And  I,  BRETHREN,  WHEN  I  CAME  TO  YOU,  CAME  NOT  WITH  EXCEL- 
LENCY OF  SPEECH  OR  OF  WISDOM,  DECLARING  UNTO  YOU  THE 
TESTIMONY  OF  GoD.  FoR  I  DETERMINED  NOT  TO  KNOW  ANY- 
THING    AMONG     YOU,     SAVE     JeSUS     ChRIST,     AND     HIM     CRUCIFIED. 

I  Cor.  ii.  I,  2, 

Corinth,  situated  on  that  remarkable  isthmus 
which  united  the  Morea  and  the  Peloponnesus, 
was  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  Greece.  If 
Athens  boasted  of  its  Acropolis,  crowned  with 
the  statue  of  the  virgin  goddess,  the  gilded 
spear-head  of  which  was  seen  by  the  ancient 
mariner  far  outside  Cape  Suniam,  Corinth 
prided  itself  in  its  Acro-Corinthus,  towering  two 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  as  if  to  guard  that 
isthmus,  which  Xenophon  has  termed  "  the  gate 
of  the  Peloponnesus." 

Athens  took  the  lead  of  Greece  in  intellectual 
culture  and  artistic  treasures,  but  Corinth  was 
the  common  market  of  the  JEgx2.n. 

When  St.  Paul  left  Athens  he  went  at  once 
to  Corinth.  At  Athens  he  had  encountered 
philosophers  of  various  schools,  and  idolatry  in 


460038 


its  most  fascinating  form.  He  was  now  to  meet 
a  different  class  of  people;  the  busy  trader — the 
bustling  merchant  —  the  reckless  sailor  —  the 
rough  mechanic,  and  the  varied  elements  which 
make  up  the  noisy,  sinful  population  of  a  great 
seaport. 

Yet  with  a  wisdom  and  skill  imparted  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  he  accommodated  himself  to  his 
new  position,  and  began  his  great  work  of  plant- 
ing in  that  city,  the  very  name  of  which  was 
synonymous  with  immorality,  the  gospel  of  the 
Son  of  God.  He  succeeded.  A  church  was 
gathered,  and  organized,  and  the  new  religion 
got  a  firm  foothold  in  that  great  city.  But  how 
was  this  accomplished?  What  were  the  instru- 
mentalities by  which  so  great  a  triumph  was 
achieved?  St.  Paul  tells  us  in  the  text,  "And 
I,  brethren,  when  I  came  to  you,  came  not  with 
excellency  of  speech  or  of  wisdom,  declaring 
unto  you  the  testimony  of  God.  For  I  deter- 
mined not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified." 

He  did  not  then  attempt  to  plant  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  on  a  worldly  basis,  such  as  elo- 
quence, wisdom,  or  philosophy.  The  propagators 
of  all  new  religions  have  established  their  tenets 
on  a  worldly  basis,  viz. :  by  the  sword — by  civil 
compulsion — by  the  arts  of  superstition,  or  by 


the  moulding  power  of  eloquence  or  human 
wisdom,  St.  Paul  eschewed  each  and  all  of 
these,  saying,  "I  determined  not  to  know  any- 
thing among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him 
crucified. " 

This  declaration  he  made  not  to  the  ignorant 
and  the  unrefined,  but  to  those  who  gloried  in 
eloquence;  who  made  their  boast  of  wisdom, 
and  who  regarded  as  barbarians  all  who  came 
not  within  the  magic  circle  of  Greek  learning 
and  Greek  philosophy.  It  shows  the  boldness 
of  the  Apostle  in  thus  setting  at  naught  that  on 
which  the  Corinthians  so  much  prided  them- 
selves, and  also  his  confidence  in  the  power  of 
the  truth  which  he  preached,  when  he  deter- 
mined to  set  it  forth,  not  in  its  most  attractive 
phase  to  a  Gentile  mind,  but  in  all  its  apparent 
ignominy  and  reproach, — when  he  resolved  to 
preach  at  Corinth,  not  Christ  as  a  Prophet 
greater  than  the  world's  greatest  seers,  not  Christ 
as  a  Priest  higher  than  the  highest  Pontifex  of 
earth,  not  Christ  as  a  King  seated  on  a  throne 
of  universal  dominion  ;  but  Christ  dying,  Christ 
on  the  Cross,  hung  up  between  heaven  and 
earth,  rejected  by  the  Jews,  despised  by  the 
Greeks,  crucified  by  the  Romans. 

It  must  have  seemed  strange  to  that  cultivated 
people  to  be  told  that  they  must  believe  in  the 


divine  character  and  marvelous  works  and  prof- 
fered mediation  of  a  Jew,  a  Jew  crucified,  a 
Jew  whom  his  own  nation  hung  on  a  tree,  or 
else  be  forever  lost.  Yet  strange  as  it  was,  they 
were  told  with  an  emphasis  and  directness  not 
qualified  by  courtly  phrase,  or  garnished  with 
rhetorical  grace,  that  unless  they  believed  in  and 
received  this  crucified  Jesus  as  their  Lord  and 
Saviour,  they  not  only  could  not  be  saved,  but 
would  be  visited  with  the  eternal  wrath  of  God. 
The  question  then  arises,  what  is  it  to  know 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified?  It  is  to  under- 
stand and  proclaim  the  plan  of  salvation,  of 
which  Christ  is  the  central  and  controlling 
power, — that  scheme  of  grace  revealed  in  God's 
word  for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  If  now 
we  look  for  a  moment  at  this  great  plan,  we 
shall  find  that  it  incorporates  within  itself  the 
very  highest,  broadest,  deepest  knowledge  which 
the  human  mind  is  capable  of  receiving,  and 
that  which  at  first  sight  seems  to  be  a  very  nar- 
row circle  of  knowledge,  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  is,  indeed,  when  truly  understood, 
the  widest  circle  which  the  intellect  can  com- 
pass, for  the  circumference  of  it  takes  in  the 
very  being  and  perfections  of  God,  as  well  as 
the  nature  and  destiny  of  man.  The  aspect  in 
which   the  Apostle  contemplated  Jesus  Christ 


was  that  of  being  in  himself,  as  he  says  in  an- 
other place,  "  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom 
of  God,"  centering  in  himself  the  attributes  of 
God,  the  scheme  of  grace,  the  offices  necessary 
for  salvation,  and  the  perfections  of  humanity. 

There  are  two  points  which  the  Apostle 
brings  out  here,  of  vital  importance. 

He  says,  ist,  "I  am  determined  not  to  know 
anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,"  i.e. 
Christ  in  his  person ; 

And,  2dly,  "Him  crucified,"  i.e.  Christ  in  his 
work. 

Christ  in  his  person  and  Christ  in  his  work 
then  is  the  one  great  theme  of  the  Apostle. 

Let  us  see  what  is  involved  in  a  knowledge 
of  each  of  these  points. 

To  know  Christ  in  his  person,  it  is  not  enough 
that  we  know  a  man  named  Jesus,  the  reputed 
son  of  Joseph,  the  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  who, 
more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  lived  in 
Judea.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  know  Jesus  as  a 
teacher,  instructing  the  people  in  the  sublimest 
truths  and  mysteries,  such  truths  as  the  greatest 
masters  of  human  thought  and  the  greatest 
founders  of  schools  of  philosophy  only  dimly  saw 
or  vaguely  conjectured.  It  is  not  enough  that  we 
know  Jesus  as  an  exemplar,  showing  in  his  daily 
life,  in  his  private  as  well  as  public  acts,  by  his 


words  as  by  his  deeds,  in  the  house  and  by  the 
way,  in  his  intercourse  with  the  great  as  with  the 
poor — the  most  spotless  model  of  human  con- 
duct, so  that  his  bitter  enemies  were  compelled 
to  say  we  "find  no  fault  in  him."  It  is  not 
enough  that  we  know  Jesus  as  the  founder  of 
a  new  religion,  like  Confucius,  or  Pythagoras, 
or  Zoroaster,  or  Mohammed.  We  may  know 
Jesus  in  these  several  aspects  through  the  pages 
of  history,  or  by  the  traditions  of  men,  and  yet 
this  knowledge  may  be  no  more  influential  on 
our  lives  than  that  which  we  thus  have  concern- 
ing Alexander  the  Great,  or  Plato  the  philosopher, 
or  Pericles  the  statesman.  To  know  Christ  in 
his  person  is  to  know,  recognize,  and  acknowl- 
edge Him  in  the  divine  constitution  of  his  being, 
by  which  He  is  revealed  to  us  as  very  God  and 
very  man  united  in  one  person — the  Messiah  of 
the  Jews,  the  Christ  of  the  Gentiles,  the  Saviour 
of  the  world. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  know  the 
metaphysics  of  this  truth  or  the  rationale  of  the 
hypostatic  union  of  the  two  natures  human  and 
divine;  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  tell 
the  philosophy  of  such  a  scheme  as  He  came  to 
execute,  or  unravel  the  mysteries  of  his  own  in- 
carnation and  sacrifice;  but  it  is  necessary  that 
we  should  fully  accept  the  plain  revelations  of 


the  Bible  on  this  subject,  and  that  we  should 
take  Christ  and  believe  in  Him  just  in  the  aspect, 
and  in  all  the  fullness  of  that  aspect  in  which 
He  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  Bible.  We  must 
know  Him  to  be  man  born  of  a  woman,  made 
in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  made  like  unto  his 
brethren,  with  a  true  human  body,  a  true  human 
soul,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah,  of  the  house  of  David,  tempted  in  all 
points  like  as  we  are,  a  man  of  established  per- 
sonal identity,  with  a  full  and  recognized  social, 
civil,  and  religious  status  among  the  people  with 
whom  He  dwelt.  Having  at  times  no  food  He 
is  an  hungered,  having  at  times  no  water  He 
thirsts,  with  long  journeys  He  is  wearied,  pros- 
trate with  fatigue  He  sleeps,  witnessing  grief  He 
weeps,  moved  by  compassion  He  blesses,  sorrow- 
ful in  heart  He  sighs,  needing  divine  strength  He 
prays,  loving  God  He  worships ;  He  repays  affec- 
tion with  blessing.  He  receives  the  gratuities  of 
friends  with  thanks,  He  dies  on  the  Cross  as  a 
condemned  malefactor,  and  with  the  human 
cry  of  surrender,  "Father,  in  thy  hands  I  com- 
mend my  spirit,"  He  gives  up  the  ghost. 

Thus  was  He  truly  man.  And  had  He  not 
been  this  true  man,  one  with  us  in  nature,  form, 
function,  living  and  sufl^ering  and  dying,  He  could 
not  have  stood  in  man's  place,  borne  man's  sin. 


endured  man's  penalty,  atoned  for  man's  guilt, 
and  worked  out  man's  salvation.  For,  as  St. 
Paul  says,  *' Wherefore  in  all  things  it  behooved 
Him  to  be  made  like  unto  his  brethren,  that  He 
might  be  a  merciful  and  faithful  high  priest  in 
things  pertaining  to  God." 

But  much  as  we  insist  on  the  true  manhood 
of  Christ,  He  was  something  more.  He  was 
very  God.  In  union  with  this  human  nature 
was  a  divine  nature;  not  such  a  union  as  ele- 
vated the  human  nature  into  the  divine,  nor 
yet  dwarfed  the  divine  nature  by  the  human, 
but  each  perfectly  separate,  yet  so  conjointly 
acting  in  a  way  and  process  mysterious  to  us,  yet 
fully  revealed,  as  to  constitute  Him  at  once  the 
"word"  which  "was  God,"  and  the  "word" 
which  "was  made  flesh," — the  Immanuel,  God 
with  us. 

Now  to  know  Christ,  even  in  this  phase  of 
his  character,  is  to  know  the  sublimest  historical 
character  in  the  annals  of  the  world;  one  who 
by  his  simple  teachings  has  overturned  more  in- 
stitutions of  error,  built  up  more  grand  schemes 
of  right,  spread  abroad  more  truth,  shed  more 
light,  and  dispensed  more  blessing  than  any  or 
all  human  beings  combined. 

You  have  only  with  a  docile  mind  to  open 
your  Bible  and  read  the  acts   done  by  Christ, 


the  attributes  ascribed  to  Him,  the  titles  bestowed 
upon  Him,  the  divine  worship  given  to  Him,  the 
judgment  which  He  is  to  exercise  and  the  work 
which  He  came  on  earth  to  do,  to  be  convinced 
that,  as  the  Apostle  says,  "In  Him  dwelleth  all 
the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."  This  is 
that  great  mystery  of  godliness,  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh,  which  finite  minds  cannot  comprehend, 
because  the  measuring  lines  of  human  reason 
stretch  not  out  to  the  infinitude  of  God,  and 
the  sounding  lead  of  human  thought  strikes  no 
bottom  in  the  unfathomable  depths  of  the  divine 
existence. 

Now,  as  it  was  necessary  to  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  real  man  in  order  to  qualify  Him  to 
be  a  real  day's  man  or  redeemer  for  men,  so  also 
is  it  necessary  to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  should 
be  the  true. God  in  order  to  qualify  Him  to  mag- 
nify the  law,  bear  the  penalty  due  to  it,  and 
make  such  an  atonement  as  could  satisfy  an  in- 
finitely holy  God  and  vindicate  an  infinitely  holy 
law.  No  other  than  a  divine  being  could  recon- 
cile God  and  man,  for  the  presence  of  the  divine 
nature  gave  to  the  obedience  of  Christ  a  divine 
value,  and  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  a  divine 
efficacy,  and  to  the  mediation  of  Christ  a  divine  . 
sufficiency,  and  to  the  redemption  by  Christ  a 
divine  completeness,  and  to  the  salvation  offered 


by  Christ  a  divine  fullness,  without  which  the 
obedience  of  the  law  would  have  been  valueless, 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  inefficient,  the  mediation 
of  Christ  insufficient,  the  redemption  of  Christ 
incomplete,  and  the  salvation  proffered  defective 
alike  in  its  grace,  its  hopes,  and  its  rewards  here 
and  hereafter. 

There  is  then  no  true  knowledge  of  Jesus 
Christ  which  does  not  know  Him  in  this  double 
aspect  as  the  God-man,  Christ  Jesus.  Thus 
Paul  knew,  loved,  worshiped,  and  preached 
Him.  Thus  the  early  church  recognized  and 
honored  Him.  Thus  all  the  holy  angels  re- 
garded Him,  and  thus  will  He  be  adored  by  the 
eternal  worship  of  the  General  Assembly  and 
Church  of  the  new-born,  whose  names  are 
written  in  Heaven. 

We  perceive,  then,  that  there  is  involved  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  person  of  Christ  a  knowl- 
edge of  his  full  humanity  and  full  deity  in  his 
divine  constitution  and  attributes,  and  this  com- 
prehends a  full  knowledge  of  God  as  revealed 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  He,  says  St.  Paul, 
is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the 
express  image  of  his  person. 

But  we  pass  on  to  the  second  point,  the  knowl- 
edge of  Christ  in  his  work,  expressed  by  the 
Apostle  in  the  phrase  **Him  crucified." 


As  all  the  knowledge  which  God  has  revealed 
to  us  concerning  himself  centers  directly  or  in- 
directly in  the  person  of  Christ  as  being  the 
brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person,  so  all  the  operations  of 
divine  grace  center  in  a  crucified  Christ  as  being 
the  sole  object  of  the  world's  faith  and  salvation. 
God's  covenant  of  grace  is  in  its  every  part  mor- 
ticed into  the  cross  of  Calvary.  Take  that  cross 
away,  and  atonement,  redemption  and  restora- 
tion to  the  favor  and  enjoyment  of  God  have 
no  existence.  They  each  derive  their  efficacy 
from  their  relation  to  the  cross.  Listen  to  a 
few  quotations,  to  show  how  the  Bible  regards 
the  cross.  What  was  the  one  theme  of  Paul's 
preaching  ?  Writing  to  the  Corinthians,  he  says, 
"we  preach  Christ  crucified,"  and  in  another 
place  he  calls  it  the  preaching  of  the  Cross. 
How  was  Christ  presented  as  an  object  of  faith 
to  the  people  ?  As  a  lamb  slain,  as  a  sacrifice,  or, 
as  he  tells  the  Galatians,  "  Christ  hath  been  evi- 
dently set  forth  crucified  among  you." 

Through  what  instrumentality  was  peace  and 
reconciliation  effected  ?  "  Having  made  peace 
through  the  blood  of  the  Cross,"  "  we  are  recon- 
ciled in  one  body  by  the  Cross."  How  was  the 
old  legal  demand  against  us,  that  handwriting 
of  ordinances,  which   was   contrary  to   us,  re- 


moved?  It  was  done  by  Christ,  says  St.  Paul, 
"  taking  it  out  of  the  way  and  nailing  it  to  his 
Cross."  What  was  it  that  has  redeemed  us  unto 
God?  Corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold? 
No;  but  the  precious  blood  of  Christ  as  of  a 
lamb,  a  bleeding  lamb,  the  lamb  slain  on  the 
altar  of  the  Cross. 

What  did  the  Apostle  regard  as  the  concrete, 
the  very  quintessence  of  knowledge  ? — To  know 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified.  How  would 
the  Apostle  express  our  mortification  of  sin  and 
our  required  deadness  to  the  world  ?  "  I  am  cruci- 
fied with  Christ."  What  was  the  highest  glory 
that  fired  the  ambition  of  this  great  Apostle? 
"  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in  the 
cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Who  is  He 
that  walketh  amidst  the  seven  golden  candle- 
sticks, whose  eyes  were  as  a  flame  of  fire,  whose 
voice  was  as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  who  had 
in  his  right  hand  seven  stars,  out  of  whose  mouth 
went  a  two-edged  sword,  and  whose  countenance 
was  as  the  sun  shining  in  his  strength  ?  Let 
himself  answer.  "  I  am  He  that  liveth,  and  was 
dead  and  am  alive  for  evermore."  Who  is  He 
that  only  of  all  the  beings  in  heaven  could  open 
the  seven-sealed  book  and  unfold  the  future  of  the 
Church  of  the  world?  "  The  Lamb  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne  as  it  had  been  slain."    What  is  the 


chorus  of  that  new  song  of  the  four  and  twenty 
elders  which  is  sung  by  the  angels  round  the 
throne,  and  the  living  creatures  and  the  elders 
and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  ?  "  Worthy 
is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain."  Whence  came 
that  white-robed  and  palm-bearing  throng 
who  are  before  the  throne  of  God  and  serve 
Him  day  and  night  in  his  temple  ?  Those 
"  who  have  washed  their  robes  and  made  them 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  And  in 
that  grand  description  of  the  marriage  supper 
in  heaven,  when  the  bride  of  the  Church  hath 
made  herself  ready,  who  is  it  that  is  repre- 
sented as  her  spouse?  One  who  sits  upon  a 
white  horse  leading  the  armies  of  heaven,  clad 
in  white,  also,  on  white  horses ;  one  on  whose  ves- 
ture and  on  whose  thigh  is  a  name  written  "  King 
of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords;"  one  who  had  on 
his  head  many  crowns ;  and  one !  mark  the  em- 
phatic language  !  "who  was  clothed  with  a  ves- 
ture dipped  in  blood,"  the  blood  of  the  Cross, 
"  and  whose  name  is  called  the  Word  of  God." 
Thus  the  scheme  of  redemption  in  its  every  part 
and  place,  in  earth  and  in  heaven,  is  linked  with 
the  Cross  of  Christ,  so  that  he  who  knows  Christ 
crucified  knows  all  the  truths  which  center  in 
and  radiate  from  that  one  fact,  which  constitute 
the  whole  sum  of  saving  knowledge.     We  are 


not  to  be  saved  by  Christ  as  a  teacher,  by  Christ 
as  an  example,  by  Christ  as  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh ;  but  by  Christ's  obedience  and  death — by 
his  vicarious  sacrifice,  by  his  full  and  sufficient 
oblation  and  satisfaction  on  the  Cross,  by  his 
blood  shedding  as  of  a  lamb  slain  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world.  Whatever  else  we  may 
know  of  Christ,  if  we  know  not  this,  we  have 
not  saving  knowledge  and  saving  faith.  But,  if 
we  know  this,  whatever  else  we  may  be  ignorant 
of,  we  shall  secure  eternal  life. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  believe  in 
earthly  science,  that  we  should  grasp  human 
philosophy,  that  we  should  range  through  secu- 
lar history,  that  we  should  be  skilled  in  the  arts 
of  painting  and  sculpture,  that  we  should  be 
learned  in  the  affairs  of  government.  These  are 
all  proper  for  us  to  know  as  dwellers  on  this 
material  earth,  but  then  we  are  not  to  dwell 
here  always,  and  our  minds  and  souls  are  given 
us  for  higher  ends  than  these.  We  want  a  knowl- 
edge that  will  not  leave  us  at  death,  that  will 
go  with  us  into  the  eternal  world,  and  constitute 
there  the  rudiments  of  that  learning  in  which 
we  shall  be  forever  ripening  and  growing.  He 
who  knows  Christ  as  the  way  to  God,  as  the 
truth  of  God,  as  the  life  of  God,  as  the  light  of 
the  world,  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  as  the  redeemer 


of  the  world,  as  the  day's  man  and  Saviour  of 
the  world,  knows  that  which  is  the  highest 
reach  of  all  knowledge,  those  deep  and  precious 
mysteries  of  faith  which  even  the  angels  desire 
to  look  into. 

Could  we  see  as  St.  Paul  saw  the  boundless 
circumference  of  truth  of  which  Christ  and 
Him  crucified  is  the  center,  and  the  present  and 
eternal  greatness  and  glory  of  these  truths,  we 
should  not  wonder  that  the  Apostle  could  say, 
of  all  human  acquirements,  "  what  things  were 
gain  to  me,  I  counted  loss  for  Christ.  Yea 
doubtless,  and  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the 
excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my 
Lord."  Or  that  he  should  tell  the  Corinthians 
when  he  came  preaching  among  them,  "I  de- 
termined not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save 
Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified:"  for  to  know 
these  two  things,  Christ  in  his  person,  and  Christ 
in  his  work,  constitutes  the  sum  of  that  divine 
knowledge  which  God  has  revealed  in  his  holy 
word. 

It  is  upon  this  basis  alone  that  the  church  of 
the  living  God  can  be  built  up.  The  Apostle 
tells  us  "other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than 
that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ."  This  foun- 
dation is  laid — laid  not  by  man  but  by  God — 
laid  in  the  eternal  counsels  of  the  Godhead;  and 


upon  this  already  laid  basis,  we  as  workers  to- 
gether with  God  are  to  build,  and  the  strength 
and  glory  of  our  ministry  depend  on  what  and 
how  we  build  thereon.  If  Christ  in  his  person 
and  Christ  in  his  office,  Christ  the  head  of  the 
Church,  and  the  Church  the  body  of  Christ,  are 
the  foundation-stones,  we  shall  build  to  the  glory 
of  God, — but  just  in  proportion  as  we  substitute 
for  these  great  truths,  the  concrete  of  human 
philosophy,  or  the  painted  imitations  of  living 
stones,  colored  by  ecclesiastical  art,  then  will 
our  labor  be  in  vain,  and  the  sham  work  will 
bring  upon  us  eternal  disgrace.  There  is  a 
boasting  philosophy  and  a  science  falsely  so 
called  abroad  which  now  as  in  the  Apostle's  day 
flout  at  the  simple  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and 
would  supersede  the  ordinance  of  divine  wisdom 
in  the  foolishness  of  preaching,  by  the  words 
"which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,"  and  which 
can  only  be  rightly  met  as  the  stripling  David 
met  the  giant  of  Gath,  not  in  kingly  armor 
forged  by  human  hands,  but  by  the  smooth 
stones  "from  Siloa's  brook  fast  by  the  oracles 
of  God,"  and  the  child's  sling  of  a  childlike 
faith. 

The  great  safety  of  the  minister,  amidst  the 
perplexities  of  science  and  philosophy  and  social 
reforms  and  human  philanthropies,  is  in  keeping 


near  Christ  and  his  cross.  As  he  moves  away 
from  these,  their  attractive  power  is  lessened, 
and  not  only  so,  but  just  as  love  and  light  and 
truth  are  weakened  by  removal,  so  his  suscepti- 
bility to  error  increases — so  his  inability  to  stand 
upright  is  weakened  —  so  his  liability  to  be 
swerved  by  profane  and  vain  babblings  and  op- 
positions of  science,  falsely  so  called,  is  made 
more  sure.  Christ  is  the  light  of  the  world. 
There  is  no  darkness  of  sin  or  of  error  which 
that  light  will  not  scatter,  if  it  only  be  made  to 
shine  upon  it.  There  is  no  false  science  or  vain 
babbling  or  deceiving  philosophy  which  the 
truth  of  the  Cross  will  not  dissipate  when  once 
brought  in  contact  with  it.  These  battles  with 
modern  infidelity — with  exegetical  skepticism — 
with  boastful  science  —  with  mere  earthly 
schemes  of  man's  advancement  are  to  be  fought 
around  the  doctrine  of  a  divine,  crucified  Saviour. 
The  combat  is  not  to  be  removed  from  Calvary 
to  the  academy.  The  arena  of  the  school  is  not 
to  be  substituted  for  the  church  of  the  living 
God.  We  are  placed  as  ministers  beside  the 
Cross — there  we  must  fight  the  Lord's  battles — 
there  herald  the  Lord's  words — there  resist  the 
enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ, — there  stand  and 
labor  until  we  die,  resolving  always  and  every- 


where  to  determine  to  know  nothing  among 
men,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified. 

St.  Paul,  as  he  stood  in  Corinth,  might  have 
preached  to  such  a  poHshed  people  with  all  the 
charms  and  ornaments  of  rhetoric  and  philoso- 
phy, but  he  eschewed  this  wisdom  of  words  and 
excellency  of  speech.  Before  such  a  restive 
people  he  might  have  inveighed  against  the 
edict  of  Claudius,  which  drove  all  the  Jews  out 
of  Rome ;  or  the  political  course  of  Nero  in  re- 
ference to  the  Grecian  colonies  and  commerce; 
or  protested  against  the  horrors  of  Grecian  and 
Roman  slavery,  or  declared  against  the  bloody 
shows  and  games  and  unblushing  licentiousness 
of  the  Corinthians.  He  might  have  preached 
social  reforms, — political  discourses, — sermons 
on  patriotism  that  would  have  almost  called  from 
their  graves  the  old  heroes  of  Greece.  He 
might,  as  the  modern  pulpit  is  too  apt  to  do, 
have  run  the  whole  round  of  popular  and  sensa- 
tional topics,  and  made  the  Church  another  mar- 
ket-place for  those  who,  like  the  Athenians, 
"spent  their  time  in  nothing  else  but  either  to 
hear  or  tell  some  new  thing."  But  he  did  none 
of  these  things. 

He  lived  in  an  age  of  stirring  events  in  the 
political  world,  when  emperors  were  deposed, 
and  armies  were  set  against  armies,  and  the  em- 


pire  of  Rome  itself  began  to  crack  and  split 
beneath  the  rapacity  of  politicians  and  the  law- 
lessness of  the  PriEtorian  guard ;  he  lived  among 
a  people  as  excitable  or  even  more  so  than  our- 
selves; more  licentious,  full  of  idolatry,  with 
scarcely  a  redeeming  virtue,  and  whose  only 
glory  was  a  sunset  glory,  the  lingering  rays  of  a 
greatness  that  had  even  then  gone  down  behind 
the  horizon;  and  yet  observe  how  St.  Paul 
spurns  all  these  things  —  philosophy,  politics, 
social  economics,  human  philanthropies :  and 
standing  on  that  isthmus,  with  the  shadow  of 
the  Acro-Corinthus  falling  on  him,  and  the 
murmur  of  the  two  seas  sounding  beside  him, 
and  the  temples  and  statues  of  the  heathen  gods 
before  him,  he  tells  the  people  "I  determined 
not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save  Jesus 
Christ,  and  Him  crucified." 

The  pulpit  loses  its  dignity  when  it  descends 
to  any  other  theme;  the  pulpit  is  shorn  of  its 
spiritual  power  when  it  speaks  of  aught  but 
Christ  and  his  atoning  work.  We  are  not  the 
ambassadors  of  men,  nor  of  societies,  nor  of 
governments,  nor  of  the  world,  but  of  God.  It 
is  God's  work  that  we  are  to  do,  not  man's,  and 
that  work  is  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

The  man  who  preaches  to  advance  his  own 


glory  as  a  scholar  or  a  theologian,  is  like  Phidias, 
who  introduced  his  own  portrait  among  the 
effigies  on  the  shield  of  Minerva,  an  act  which  the 
Athenians  even  punished  as  gross  impiety.  The 
man  who  aims  simply  to  please  the  tastes  of  his 
audience  and  caters  to  their  morbid  appetite  for 
the  showy,  the  exciting,  and  the  rhetorical,  in- 
stead of  feeding  them  with  the  bread  of  life,  is 
like  Nero  sending  his  ships  to  Egypt,  the  gran- 
ary of  the  world,  not  for  corn  to  feed  the  fam- 
ishing thousands  of  Rome,  but  for  sand  for  the 
wrestlers  in  the  circus.  The  man  who  preaches 
a  Platonized  theology,  or  an  Aristotelian  philo- 
sophy as  a  substitute  for  the  pure  word  of  God, 
is  like  those  medieval  monks  who  erased  the 
manuscript  texts  of  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  and 
on  the  vellum  wrote  the  dogmas  of  the  school- 
men or  the  legends  of  the  fathers.  The  man 
who  preaches  politics  and  makes  the  pulpit  a 
bema  for  Philippics  against  the  State  or  a  ros- 
trum for  harangues  about  national  politics,  is 
like  the  soldier  of  Titus  who  threw  a  firebrand 
into  the  temple  of  God.  The  man  who  preaches 
Christ  with  an  unrenewed  heart,  is  like  that 
speculum  of  ice  made  by  a  Polar  navigator, 
by  which  he  so  concentrated  the  rays  of  the 
Arctic  sun  into  one  focus  as  to  kindle  a  fire 
by  it,  while  yet  itself  was  unthawed  by  its  beams. 


Only  as  we  preach  Christ  in  the  love  and 
faith  and  hope  of  the  Redeemer  and  with  an 
eye  single  to  his  glory,  can  we  fulfill  the  terms 
of  our  commission,  follow  the  example  of  Paul, 
and  glorify  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

Such,  brother  beloved,  is  the  glorious  Gospel 
which  is  committed  to  your  trust  as  a  Bishop  of 
the  Church,  and  which  you  are  to  commission 
others  to  preach.  It  is  the  most  precious  deposit 
which  God  can  give  to  man.  An  angel  might 
covet  the  work  to  be  entrusted  to  you;  an  arch- 
angel might  receive  new  honor  in  the  discharge 
of  such  a  ministry.  Try  and  comprehend  the 
vastness  of  the  theme!  Christ  in  his  person! 
Christ  in  his  work !  Study  this  truth  until  your 
mind  is  imbued  with  its  doctrine  and  your  heart 
steeped  in  its  grace.  Make  all  your  studies,  how- 
ever wide  their  range,  converge  to  the  develop- 
ing of  this  central,  sun-like  truth.  Seek  to  have 
Christ  formed  within  you  the  hope  of  glory  as 
the  motive  power  of  your  spirit.  Hide  your 
life  with  Christ  in  God  as  the  sole  ground  of 
your  personal  safety  and  salvation.  Put  on 
Christ  in  the  outward  aspects  of  your  behavior, 
so  that  those  around  you  shall  take  knowledge 
of  you  that  you  have  been  with  Jesus.  Preach 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  fully,  freely,  purely.  Let 
Him  be  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  all  your  min- 


istrations,  and  thus  making  Christ  all  in  all  in 
your  heart,  your  mind,  your  house,  your  preach- 
ing, your  pastorate, — -yours  will  be  a  Christ- 
honored  and  a  Christ-honoring  Episcopate  ;  and 
when  He  who  was  crucified  in  shame  shall  ap- 
pear in  great  glory,  then  shall  you  rejoice  that 
you  did  so,  and  shall  hear  Him  say,  "Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Brethren,  I  can  to-day  speak  with  only  stam- 
mering words,  for  in  the  few  hours  which  have 
been  given  to  me  in  which  to  prepare  for  this 
day's  duty,  I  have  scarcely  had  time  to  compose 
my  mind  or  adjust  my  thoughts.  This  General 
Convention  has  witnessed  a  wondrous  spectacle. 
The  long-severed  Church  has  become  united 
again;  long-separated  dioceses,  bishops,  clergy, 
and  laity  have  come  together  in  this  city  of 
brotherly  love,  which  never  more  merited  its 
name  than  it  did  last  week,  when,  disregarding 
all  that  is  past  and  looking  forward  with  confi- 
dence and  honor  to  the  future,  the  House  of 
Bishops  and  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  took 
back  the  once  absent  children  of  our  house- 
hold of  faith,  and  we  became  knit  together 
again  in  the  blessed  bond  of  peace  and  in  the 
unity  and  communion  of  our  one  and  undivided 
Church.     Thank  God  for  this  triumph  of  prin- 


ciple  over  passion !  of  love  over  hatred !  of  peace 
over  discord!  It  was  the  work  we  heUeve  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  who,  like  a  dove,  came  to  our 
ark  floating  on  a  troubled  sea,  bearing  the  olive 
branch,  that  told  that  the  surging  waters  were 
assuaged,  and  prepared  the  way  for  that  seven- 
colored  bow  which  indicated  a  passed-ofF  tem- 
pest, and  which  was  the  token  of  God's  love 
and  the  Church's  peace. 

And  now,  to-day,  the  assembled  tribes  of  our 
spiritual  church  have  come  here  for  the  purpose 
of  consecrating  to  the  office  of  a  Bishop  in  the 
Church  of  God  one  who  has  been  presented  to 
us  and  testified  to,  as  worthy  to  succeed  the 
noble  and  faithful  Otey  in  the  Diocese  of  Ten- 
nessee. When  Bishop  Otey  died,  the  whole 
Church  lost  a  great  leader — the  Diocese  of  Ten- 
nessee its  revered  and  beloved  head.  He  was 
taken  away  in  the  midst  of  the  fierce  conflict 
of  arms  which  waged  around  him ;  and  to  him 
the  quiet  of  the  grave  for  his  afflicted  body  and 
the  repose  of  his  soul  in  Jesus  was  an  unspeak- 
able blessing.  For  nearly  thirty  years  he  toiled 
as  a  Missionary  and  Diocesan  Bishop  in  that 
large  field  and  worked  it  with  diligence  and 
zeal.  Bold,  single  hearted,  earnest,  godly,  he 
made  himself  a  name  and  a  power  in  the  House 
of  Bishops  and  in  the  Church  of  God.      His 


memory  will  ever  be  cherished,  not  merely  as 
the  first  Bishop  of  Tennessee,  but  as  a  wise, 
faithful,  and  laborious  Minister  of  Christ. 

Many  years  ago,  when  it  was  my  privilege  to 
minister  to  a  beloved  flock  in  Georgia,  there 
came  to  me  a  young  physician,  who  wished  to 
unite  himself  with  my  church.  He  did  so,  and 
during  my  stay  in  that  parish  he  was  a  faithful 
and  zealous  layman  in  the  church.  A  few  years 
after  my  coming  to  this  city,  this  young  phy- 
sician felt  called  upon,  like  his  former  rector, 
to  give  up  the  medical  profession,  and  soon  after 
he  took  holy  orders,  and  began  his  ministry  in 
one  of  the  interesting  parishes  in  Tennessee. 
Occasionally  I  met  him,  and  often  heard  of  him, 
always  with  interest  in  his  successful  labors, 
the  fame  of  which  extended  far  beyond  the 
border  of  that  Diocese. 

When  the  thick  cloud  of  war  rolled  in  be- 
tween us  and  separated  us,  for  long  and  dreary 
years  we  lost  sight  of  each  other,  but  when  God 
sent  the  angel  of  peace  to  lift  the  war  cloud, 
and  bid  it  depart,  I  again  caught  sight  of  him, 
and  saw  that  he  was  busily  engaged  in  gather- 
ing the  scattered  sheep — in  rebuilding  the  de- 
stroyed temples — in  reorganizing  the  almost 
disintegrated  Diocese,  and  nurturing  the  things 
which  remained  and  which  were  ready  to  die. 


Soon  I  saw  him  chosen  to  succeed  the  lamented 
Otey  in  the  ahnost  desolate  Diocese  of  Tennes- 
see, and  to-day  he  is  before  me  to  be  solemnly 
consecrated  as  a  Bishop  of  the  Church  of  God. 
Little  did  I  think  when  I  received  that  young 
physician  into  the  communion  of  my  church 
that  I  should  ever  assist  in  consecrating  him 
Bishop  of  Tennessee. 

You  will  not  wonder  then  that  my  heart  goes 
out  towards  him,  or  that,  at  his  earnest  solicita- 
tion, his  former  rector  preaches  his  consecration 
sermon.  Most  lovingly  do  I  welcome  him  back 
to  our  hearts  and  our  homes  and  our  altars.  Most 
gladly  do  I  extend  to  him  the  hand  of  greeting. 
God  has  called  him  to  a  high  and  noble  work, 
and  in  God's  name  we  shall  send  him  forth,  con- 
secrated by  the  Bishops  of  the  United  States,  to 
that  sorely  stricken  diocese,  to  hold  up  the 
weak,  heal  the  sick,  bind  up  the  broken,  bring 
again  the  outcasts,  seek  the  lost ;  and  so  to 
labor  in  that  now  desolate  land  and  among  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  men  in  preaching  Christ 
and  Him  crucified,  that  when  the  Chief  Shep- 
herd shall  appear  he  may  receive  the  never- 
fading  crown  of  glory  through  Jesus  Christ. 

The  field  to  which  you  go  is  one  demanding 
of  you  your  best  energies — your  holiest  zeal — 
your  most  self-sacrificing  spirit.     You  will  find 


4:G0()i3b 


in  it  no  room  for  indolence  or  ease,  but  the  down- 
right toil,  the  hard  day  labor  of  a  working 
Bishop  will  be  required  of  you.  The  honors 
of  the  Episcopate  will  repay  no  true  Christian 
for  its  toils  and  cares.  Even  in  the  best  organ- 
ized dioceses  it  is  a  yoke  grievous  to  be  borne, 
and  which  many  a  Bishop,  consulting  solely  flesh 
and  blood,  would  gladly  take  off  from  his  galled 
neck.  Your  work  is  peculiarly  hard.  The 
surging  tide  of  war  has  swept  away  nearly  all 
the  church's  landmarks,  the  heritage  of  the 
Lord  has  been  laid  waste,  and  the  vine  of  God's 
planting  is  uninclosed  and  unprotected.  You 
need  much  of  prudence  to  act  wisely  in  build- 
ing up  the  waste  places  of  Zion.  You  need 
great  faith  to  enable  you  to  toil  where  toil  will 
be  for  the  present  so  little  rewarded.  You  need 
a  heart  brimful  of  love  to  Jesus  to  serve  you 
with  holy  zeal  in  proclaiming  his  blood-bought 
salvation.  You  need  powers  of  government  and 
self-discipline,  which  can  only  come  from  God, 
to  enable  you  to  think,  act,  and  speak  as  be- 
cometh  a  Christian  Bishop.  But,  brother,  the 
promise  is  "  my  God  shall  supply  all  your  needs ;" 
and  the  Apostle  says,  "I  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ  which  strengtheneth  me."  Seek 
of  God  by  prayer  through  Christ  for  the  all- 
needful  powers  and  grace — lean  now  and  always 


on  the  right  arm  of  Jehovah,  and  He  will  make 
thee  a  wise  master  builder — a  workman  that 
needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  enabling  you  to 
fulfill  the  Episcopate  which  you  shall  receive,  to 
the  glory  of  God — the  good  of  men — the  welfare 
of  your  diocese,  and  the  upbuilding  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church  on  the  one  and  only  foundation, 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 


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^ 

S84s 

A  sermon, 
preached  in  St, 

Luke's  church. 

1 

■ 

3X 

5937 

S84s 


;>OUTHFRrj  RFGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

AA    000  977  689 


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